COFFEE 



95 



afterwards to harden off the plants by placing the pots in Hardening 

 more exposed situations. pkntl"! 



Bamboo Pots. — As a good many plants cultivated by the 

 tropical agriculturist are raised to great advantage in bam- 

 boo pots, it is as well for particulars to be given of the way 

 of planting seeds and seedlings in these useful receptacles. A 

 bamboo stem is a hollow cylinder divided into many com- How bam- 

 partments by cross partitions of thin, hard, woody tissue. At niade.°'^^^^ 

 each joint, or node, or knot, where the stem is swollen, there 

 is one of these partitions, and thus a bamboo stem has as 

 many compartments as it has nodes. If the stem be sawn 

 through, an inch or so below each node, there will be made 

 a number of hollow cylinders from lo to 14 inches long, and 

 from 3 to 4 inches in diameter, open at one end and closed at 

 the other. These are the bamboo pots, and there is nothing Utility of the 

 else so admirably adapted for raising plants, and so cheap P°'^' 

 and plentiful in most tropical countries. The pots being 

 deep accommodate the tap roots better than the ordinary 

 flower pots. Their sides are glazed with a hard siliceous 

 material which does not allow evaporation, and thus prevents 

 the roots from being chilled and the soil from drying up, as 

 is the case in porous earthenware pots. The bamboos, 

 too, are strong and hard, and not broken by falls or knocks, 

 and they are so inexpensive as to allow a pot to be destroyed 

 for each plant. On estates where there are no bamboos, or 

 where none can be easily got, the planter should grow several 

 clumps, if only for the sake of making the stems into pots. 



A plant is set in a bamboo pot in the following way : — How to place 

 The pot having been pierced below with a large hole for {[je po^"! '" 

 the purpose of allowing exit to the water, some small stones 

 should be put in so as to prevent the earth from choking the 

 hole, and so as to favour drainage. On the stones some moss 

 or rotten leaves should be put in order to keep the earth 

 from getting in amongst the stones, and thus choking the 

 channels for the passage of the surplus water. The earth 



